In the wake of news reports regarding the mismanagement of the new TDECU Stadium by UH’s hand-picked company, UH Student Government is now calling for the resignation of UH Vice-President for Administration and Finance Carl Carlucci and two of his subordinates.  The students who agreed to a $45 increase in their student fee in exchange for a number of promises, feel that the UH Administration has not lived up to its side of the bargain and voted unanimously to oust Carlucci.  The TDECU project was plagued by delays and cost overruns and UH ended up taking money that was supposed to be used to renovate aging Hofheinz Pavilion to finish the football stadium.  The students allege this violations a memorandum of understanding that UH Administration agreed to in exchange for the increased student fees.

The Houston Chronicle reports on the vote by UH Student Government to axe Carlucci.  Meanwhile, UH Internal Auditor Don Guyton (aka the Administration’s Puppet) is conducting three internal audits related to the stadium and the apparently incompetent management company chosen by Carlucci.  Expect nothing from Guyton who is adept at cleaning up UH messes with “internal audits.”  And be assured, Carlucci is going nowhere and that UH Administration will circle the wagons to protect one of its own.

The Perryman Group reports that former Gov. Rick Perry’s deployment of National Guard troops to the Texas-Mexico border is a job killing drag on the Texas economy.  The Waco-based firm looked at previous troop deployments along the Rio Grande to estimate the potential economic impact of Perry’s recent use of one thousand National Guardsmen to patrol the border.  The Perryman Group estimated that businesses in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley would lose $541.9 million in GDP and 7,830 jobs for each year of deployment. Texas as a whole would lose 8,680 jobs and $650 million in GDP per year. The primary reasons for the economic slowdown are the discouraging effect the troops’ presence has on cross-border business and tourism.

Among his many other talents, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick apparently has inside information on the inner workings of Mexican drug cartels.  Patrick claimed at a news conference on Tuesday that drug cartels have been ramping up operations in anticipation that the troops would soon be leaving the area.  Patrick seems increasingly desperate for an excuse to keep the Texas National Guard on the border in the face of a decrease in illegal border crossings by undocumented persons.  The International Business Times reports that Patrick is fighting to keep the National Guard on the border after funds for former Gov. Rick Perry’s deployment run out next month.

[Patrick] announced he would be requesting $12 million in funding to keep the troops there until May and would work on an additional bill to extend their stay through August. “Under no circumstance should we have a complete pullout of the National Guard next month,” he said[.]

Former Gov. Rick Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the border last year amid a surge of unauthorized border crossings by unaccompanied children and families. Perry argued that the Texas border was left vulnerable to drug cartels and traffickers because Border Patrol resources were diverted to handle the influx. Perry stated at the time that he expected Washington, D.C., to eventually foot the bill for the troops’ presence there.

Troop levels have been winding down in the weeks leading up to their scheduled departure in March, and around 200 remain. The number of unauthorized border crossings has also waned since August.

State Rep. Donna Howard (D. Austin) has filed a bill that would change Confederate Heroes Day into a more general holiday honoring those who fought on both sides in the Civil War.  The Texas holiday celebrated on January 19 (R.E. Lee’s Birthday) occasionally coincides with the National Martin Luther King Jr. federal Monday holiday.  The incongruous pairing of holidays – one celebrating those who fought to preserve slavery and the Southern way life based on that institution – and another celebrating the Civil Rights champion – has caused some controversy over the years.  Howard’s bill would create some distance between the two holidays.  The Houston Chronicle reports:

Howard said she decided to write the bill after being approached by a constituent who thought Confederate Heroes Day insufficient because it does not recognize Union soldiers.

“I think the way that (my constituent) approached this is that there was a Civil War involving all of our United States of America,” Howard said. “We should be recognizing all of those who were involved with that period of our history.”

The state holiday, officially born in 1973 after the Texas Legislature combined celebrations of Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis’ birthdays, falls on Jan. 19, Lee’s birthday.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January, which places it around King’s Jan. 15 birthday.

[Reta] Brand, [director of the Texas Society Order of Confederate Rose], said she was not concerned with the coinciding holidays, but said if one has to change it should be the King holiday.

“We had Confederate Heroes Day before there was a Martin Luther King Jr. Day, why can’t they change theirs?” she asked. “I have no problem with them both being celebrated on the same day because most of the people who celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day don’t celebrate Confederate Heroes Day.”

This peculiar brand of Confederate worship has always puzzled Red.  What other nation gets to celebrate and honor persons who were technically traitors fighting for the enslavement of their fellow citizens?  I understand that the vast majority of Confederate soldiers were not slave owners and that they may have believed that they were fighting for something else, but the reality is that they were on the wrong side of history and were sacrificed for an ignoble cause.  That they were allowed to return home in peace and live out their lives was a tribute to the magnanimous policy of Lincoln and Grant in seeking an end to the horrible conflict that saved the USA and put us on the path to global greatness.

The Daily Texan reports that UT fraternity Phi Gamma Delta hosted a “Border Patrol” themed party on Saturday night.  Members and their guests were spotted wearing construction work clothes, sombreros and hard hat with names like “Jefe” or “Pablo Sanchez” on them.  Other partiers were dressed in army camouflage.   The fraternity claimed that the theme was supposed to be traditional Old West, but guests apparently confirmed “Border Patrol” was the real theme.

“Decorations included painted photo cutout boards of people dressed in traditional Mexican attire. The bar was painted to resemble a Mexican flag, with the shape of Texas in the middle.”